tongue

Tar Heel basketball fans, now that our boys have won the NCAA March Madness tournament this year and are national champs, I ask you to be civilized towards who didn’t believe who may have wronged you in the past. As sweat stinks less when you win, it is also easier to forgive when you win. So do NOT do anything in return to those people who wronged you without their permission. Instead, show both empathy and courtesy by giving them the chance to give you that permission.

Introducing coupons you can give to non-believers in North Carolina Tar Heels basketball, with which they can request you for some UNC showboatin’, struttin, tongue wagging and victory dance! Perfect for everything from stocking stuffers to being hoeartfelt presents in birthday cards to those you really don’t want to buy gifts for (possibly because they don’t believe in UNC), these coupons will not only make you feel good about giving them, but also in delivering their content!

Click on the link below to get the PDF that prints the coupons in the picture below.

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Brad Pitt at the spa getting a facial. JUST KIDDING! Though they reminded me of stuff stars don

In the newly released (Feb 23) 18 minute video below, Ed Ulbrich demonstrates the technology of his Digital Domain team which allowed Brad Pitt to act out Benjamin Button‘s face throughout the movie, at all ages of Benjamin’s life. That way, all of Brad’s nuances and unique acting skills were able to be applied to the character throughout the movie, not just the part where the character resembled Brad and he could play him. It was almost like unspecial effects, if common effects did not convey something far less worthy, where the special effects were meant to be as unnoticeable as possible.

The video is far better than I can explain it. However, I’ve given you some interesting, albeit less than flattering photos of Brad at his work, with brief descriptions of their roles in the process. The photos were screen captured and compiled from the video to give you something to hang on to, put on your blog or whatever. Video is not the same as photos and these leave a few lasting memories of Brad Pitt like you’ve not likely seen him, like him at 80 years old below.

On the inspiring side of the talk, and as a mind blowing subplot, is the courage Ed’s team had to walk away from the state of the art technology of the day to come up with this technology since the best wasn’t nearly good enough. You’ll see in the video why it really wasn’t really nearly good enough.

High-powered as TED may be, though, the talk was easily understandable, enjoyable and jaw-dropping, as one category for ranking TED.com videos went.

Enjoy!

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 10.0

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Brad Pitt being filmed from four angles to make sure the right shot was captured. The phosphorescence on his face does not show on this regular film.

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Brad Pitt's projected look at the age of 80, from which they created Benjamin Button's 80 year old looks onto which to project Brad's expressions above. They use this sort of technology to predict what criminals would look like years later, and you can see it on shows like Cold Case Files.

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Brad Pitt's phospherence image to the computer is at left. A starting head model for movement purposes is in the centre. The aged version based on Brad's older projected look is at right. The fine details are left out to get all the movements right first.

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Out of the darkness and computer simulation environment, with some basic facial details added, a basic Benjamin Button comes alive simultaneously with Brad's acting.

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1. An actor plays a body double, with a blue hood to take out the head for computer substitution. 2. A "dead head" computer model is put in to simulate movement. 3. Brad then acts in the facial details. 4. Lighting, hairs, eyes, tongue and such facial details are added for the finished movie version.

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Wait. Speaking of tongue, this is a model of Brad Pitt's mouth and tongue model, worked on by a guy to get it right for 9 months! I heard he was pretty popular! Probably not sexy in this context, but just use your imagination! 😉

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Ed Ulbrich: How Benjamin Button Got His Face

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I did not create these three Facebook picture tagging memes, but I either adopted a graphic for Facebook tagging usage (expressions with the lady below), or improved their quality and optimized their make-up for Facebook usage. The ones I improved on, I do not know from where they come so there is no source link.

These memes involve facial expressions. To use any of these for your Facebook tagging fun: